Where I live
Where I spend my days and nights most weeks
Where life is a mix of people and styles contained in narrow row houses
Where front yards and porches are important signatures
Where inherited tall trees and cocky squirrels are in abundance
Where helicopters plough the sky above us
Where the power is near and yet far
Where everyone greets everyone in the streets
Summer is here and the heat soars. On the Hill people find shade under the big trees and on their porches in tranquil contrast to the sunburned Downtown. Gone is the beautiful sight of the blooming trees, the pink flower strewn streets and the transparent greenery of early summer. All nature is in bloom and the long summer is in front of us all. The nice whiff of barbequing, the sounds of children and human conversations portrays the small alleys now.
But when winter was still here, the trees were black and the cold winds swept the few leaves left around in the frozen streets. Everyone walked with their scarves covering their nose, hands deep in their pockets. In a tiny backyard the bamboo brought green to the eyes and the bird feeders attracted hundreds of different birds, not exactly without consequences for the environment there but with a lot of entertainment for the family watching from the kitchen window. The squirrel sat by its food plate on the small garden table, its front paws crossed on the white belly skin, freezing. The beautiful mourning doves risked their lives and picked the residue on the ground, the black cat luring from its hide. A small fat rat padded out in the open to scavenge from under the dry leaves. Nature had taken over until the sun started warming and the humans claimed the territory again.
Around Thanksgiving the small Duncan Place community sat the daffodil- and crocus-bulbs in the tree holes in anticipation of Spring. The workday was combined with fun and relaxation; pumpkins were carved and a potluck dinner shared, adults and kids casually engaged in games in the sealed off street. When December came a Holiday gathering took place in someone’s house. All year round excuses are found to gather the small community. Already in February the bulbs from October produced small green leaves sticking out of the black soil and so, hope stretched for warmer and more constructive days ahead.
A tiny street on Capitol Hill, but it represents the atmosphere that prevails on most of the Hill. Everybody greets everybody in the streets or in the green parks. That and the fantastic greenery on the Hill are uncommon for big cities but priceless when met. It is a heritage and everyone strives to keep it living in his or her way. All neighbors are members of the Community if they allow themselves to join.
Capitol Hill, “The Hill” to most
From the beginning it was built as a place for people to live.
In its earliest history Congressmen away from home needed a boardinghouse, close to The Congress. The craftsmen who worked on constructing the US Capitol Building and later the ones building the Washington Navy Yard preferred to live at walking distance from their job too, and between 1799 and 1810 The Hill became a distinct community. Today many from the political establishments own and inhabit houses on The Hill and a lot of the other families living there earn their money far from home. There are many children on The Hill. Families have moved here within the last ten years and in the afternoon when the children leave school, you hear talking and laughing as they walk by in groups on their way home.
The characteristics of the hill houses are that they are built in rows that so to speak create a house-wall towards the streets and the alleys, much like the fancier Georgetown. They are from two to four stories high with flat or pitched roofs, towers and spires according to the styles they are built in. Big houses with long narrow front gardens lines the avenues and smaller two unit houses with front porches or raised flowerbeds face the grid of streets laid out by the master planner of Washington DC: Pierre L’Enfant.
These days a lot of the houses are renovated and two units have become one unit. But all are still shells for life. The styles are mainly Victorian or Federal, but the variety is plentiful. Houses of red or yellow bricks, houses of wood panels or staves, windows made of plastic or wood, houses painted in different colors, some impeccably renovated others dilapidated and crying for hands. People from all walks of life and of all colors live their lives in these houses and their environment is lively, calm and without much commercial interference except the occasional small markets, drycleaners, restaurants and diners that dot the area. The high streets of the Hill are situated along Pennsylvania Avenue and 7th and 8th SE. H Street NW is also such an area for the “Hillies”.
The Eastern part of the community stretches 
all the way to the banks of Anacostia, where bicycle routes let you enjoy the river on both sides if you have the urge.
The best way to experience the Hill is to take a stroll and look at all the different house fronts, well kept back alleys, front gardens of all shapes and states of maintenance and enjoy the massive trees lining the streets in the entire area. When they blossom the small city in the city, where so many people live, gets a fairytale look and lightens up everybody’s day.
If you come from The Capitol it is a fine idea to walk towards east into the Capital Historic District, which stretches from F St. NE to Virginia Ave SE and all the way to 14 St. SE and NE. The route along East Capitol St. SE past the Folger Theater and the small shops in the beginning of the street and down to 7th St. is fine. If you take a right down 7th St. SE you bump into the Eastern Market just before Pennsylvania Avenue. Saturday and Sunday the streets around are clotted with people and street vendors and on weekdays “Hillies” along with Washingtonians from other parts of the city do their shopping for fresh meat, fish and veggies in the make shift shelter of the old Eastern Market from 1873, which is under renovation after the devastating fire in January 2008. Over the weekend a flea market takes place on the communal grounds next door. Summer and winter it attracts people from near and far. A lot of action takes place in that neighborhood. Café’s, where people sit with their laptop working or chatting on a normal day after school or, before or after shopping, or listening to live music on a Saturday summer afternoon. One of the better not too expensive French restaurants in the City that serves us all with excellent unpretentious food and charming waiting can be found here as well. From the Eastern Market area you may proceed to 8th St. SE called the Barracks Row due to its proximity to the Marines Barracks. You have the choice to follow a poster route through the historic Barracks Row and the surrounding area or you can just stroll down into 8th St. and feel the atmosphere there, walk past the fire station with its huge engines and then maybe take a short break in one of the many places where you can enjoy a drink or a meal from many nations. In the warm seasons the tables outside are popular to pause while life wanders by in all its diversity.
Another route is to take the Metro to Eastern Market and walk to Lincoln Park where the statues of Mary McLeod Bethune and the Slave that rise by Lincoln’s hand calls for reflection on African American’s heritage and long stride towards freedom and education. The park is an oasis for families and dog owners of all walks of life, chatting away while children and dogs are playing under a watchful eye. From there one may follow one of the streets NE to C, which runs west into Stanton Square and Massachusetts Ave., with its short spell of restaurants, before you reach Union Station. When you get there, be sure to walk through the main entrance doors and into the Hall. It’s massive though elegant interior takes your breath away and its grand domed ceiling easily covers several restaurants and shops without being cluttered. The side hall and upstairs is laid out as a shopping mall. Downstairs a more humbly priced fast food court is situated. Don’t miss the Neuhaus chocolate store! Amazing to think that after the slow down on train traffic and the riots following Martin Luther King’s assassination the station got abandoned, started to crumble and frogs
moved in leaping around on the beautiful tiles. Those days are gone and grandiose beauty has been established again for all to enjoy.
The “Hillies” often frequent the North East H Street’s many live music places, theaters and restaurants. It is a new area in which stable and welcoming businesses are shooting up like in the Adams Morgan not long ago.
The niceties and friendliness in this neighborhood are abundant. Only a fraction was mentioned, but hopefully it gave you a glimpse of the area and its inhabitants, maybe even enough to tempt you to visit some day.
Some useful websites :
Eastern Market History:
Capitol Park Service:
Union Station:
Capitol Hill Historic District:
The L’Enfant and McMillian Plans:
Restaurants on the Hill:
H Street Life: www.washingtonpost.com
TheHill:
Capital Community News:
Capitol HillVoice:
Annemarie Brink Olsen